


the shadow fades, and meets the fate of that which the light falls upon

by reshichu



Category: Final Fantasy XIV, 少女☆歌劇 レヴュースタァライト -Re LIVE- | Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight -Re LIVE- (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Ficlet Collection, i'm plagued by tamafumi brainwyrms and they're terminal, it's all the ffxiv au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:47:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23984026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reshichu/pseuds/reshichu
Summary: tamao and fumi's moments of the past, present, and future (FFXIV AU)
Relationships: Tomoe Tamao/Yumeoji Fumi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	1. the weight of thine sins

Fumi collapsed upon the ground, holding into the cell bars as her painful vision ended.

  
  


_ Was that it? _

_ Was the truth of her newfound power…? _

  
  


“Y-Yumeoji-san? Are you… alright?”

Despite the sheer torture that Tamao’s body had endured, she still found the strength in herself to crawl to the bars of her cell and gently rest a trembling hand upon Fumi’s still ringing head.

  
  


_ Comfort? But why… why? After all I have done … _

  
  


“Why?”

“Huh?”

“I, who tore you away from your family and friends, and tormented you for months with no end… whose body bears the aftermath of those experiments… You… why do you give me such comfort?”

Every word that Fumi spoke dripped of heavy guilt. Guilt that weighed so heavily upon Fumi, that Tamao herself started to crumble underneath it.

“Ah… so it is you who now bears my power.” Tamao’s hand began to gently stroke Fumi’s hair. “I assume… you bore witness to the experiments?”

“Your power?”

“The Echo.”

  
  


_ The Echo? The power so coveted by the Garleans? Does… does that mean…? _

  
  


Fumi’s eyes widen in horror.

“My new power… was it borne from your suffering?”

“Yes.”

Within Fumi, the fragile strings that held together her arrogant heart broke. Guilt and regret swiftly ate her alive as the horror of her sins came crashing down upon her.


	2. the guilt that drowns

A cool hand rested upon the faint scars on Tamao’s neck. So, very gently, Fumi ran her fingers over them, over the marks of the suffering she had caused her.

The Raen unexpectedly leaned forward and enveloped Fumi in a warm embrace.

“The past is beyond us, Fumi.” she whispered, running her fingers down the length of Fumi’s hair. “I have already forgiven you. Do not let the weight of your sins crush your sight and blind you to our goals.”

Tears began to flow from Fumi’s eyes as she tightly returned Tamao’s embrace.

“The horror of… what I had wrought upon you, Tamao… I… I c-cannot simply just… I…”

Within Tamao’s arms, Fumi felt so small, so weak. Her true self, a starveling, guilt soaked beast, could only present itself within the ever kind and gentle arms of Tamao.

“I’m sorry, Tamao.”


	3. the many scars inflicted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning for torture and fumi being an asshole :(

Tamao’s battered and bleeding body left a trail of blood as she was dragged and thrown into the cell.

“Here, Yumeoji.” One of the guards hands Fumi the key to the cell. “Guard duty is as usual. Feel free to kick around that thing if you want. Just remember to lock the door.”

As soon as the guards disappeared from Fumi’s sight, she entered the cell, towering over Tamao’s shuddering form. She looked more akin to a corpse than a living being, Fumi notes.

“Hard to believe you were once a rebel captain, if I’m to be honest.” Fumi grabs Tamao by the scruff of her tattered shirt and drags her against a wall. “Look at you. You stood so proudly amongst your warriors, and here you are now. A pathetic little thing under my mercy.”

Fumi trailed her hand down Tamao’s jawline, gently stroking a patch of scales just underneath her chin with her fingers. A light chuckle leaves Fumi’s lips.

“Go on, then.” She tilts Tamao’s chin up, forcing her to meet her cruel, prideful eyes. “Beg. Beg for my mercy like you begged for your soldier’s lives.”

The only sound Tamao could produce was a strained wheeze. Fumi clicked her tongue, and activated the collar wrapped around Tamao’s neck, making her violently convulse as it administered painful shocks.

“Ghh... aah…Haah...”

“Hm? Speak up.”

“Mer...cy… please… I-I know there is… kindness in your heart…”

Upon hearing those words, Fumi pulled her blade and pressed it firmly against Tamao’s neck.

“Do not assume anything of me, scum. I only spared your pathetic life then because of the children you were protecting.” Fumi growled, pressing the blade further and further into Tamao’s flesh until it drew blood. “Rest assured, I would have cut you down like livestock if you had been alone then.”

Fumi sheathed her blade and stood up, activating Tamao’s collar once more, delivering more shocks upon her beaten body, until finally, she could handle no more, and passed out on the cold cell floor.

“Hmph. Pathetic.” She mutters under her breath as she looks over the still twitching form of Tamao, ignoring the tiny pangs of guilt that washed over her hardened heart.


	4. the scar you now bear

Fumi knelt before Tamao, presenting her the blade which she had once used to draw blood and suffering to Tamao’s body. 

“F-Fumi?”

“I know now that we are as safe as we can be from imperial hands. So, I beg of you, Tamao. Deliver justice upon this evil that had wrought untold suffering against you.”

Fumi pressed the blade into Tamao’s hands. Once, it drank deep of the blood of what Fumi now understands were mere innocents fighting for their noble beliefs. Now, it laid in the hands of the one who had suffered so much under it. Waiting to be used for vengeance.

“Fumi… I… I cannot…”

“Tamao. My beloved master.” Fumi sits cross-legged upon the ground, closing her eyes and holding her head up high. “This is your chance to excise yourself of the great evil before you. To rid the world of one who had harmed it so horribly.”

A wave of silence washed upon the two. Here, before her, Tamao could indeed exact her vengeance, her payback for the restless nights and pain-filled days under captivity. Indeed, she could rid the world of one that had done nothing but inflict harm against it.

Tamao takes the hilt of the blade and presses it against Fumi’s throat.

“...Fare thee well, My master. Perhaps in another lifetime, we could have met in more favourable circumstances.”

The blade swiftly retracts from her throat, instead, it draws a deep cut along the length of her sternum, a wound just deep enough for it to scar were it ever to heal.

Tamao throws the blade to the side.

“There, Fumi. The evil has been excised.”

Fumi’s eyes open in shock. After everything she had done, she chose merely to wound her once?

“But master, I-...!”

“Fumi. The moment you resolved to save me from the Resonatorium and bring me all the way to Eorzea to find my friends, the evil within you had all but dissipated. I cannot say that I do not condemn your past actions. But we are now warriors of the future. Live for me, Fumi. I want you to help build a peaceful future with your own two hands.”

“I… I have hurt you so badly… nothing I can do… could ever forgive me from-!”

Tamao leans forward and gently presses against the new wound upon Fumi’s chest.

“This is my mark of forgiveness.” Tamao removes the robe covering her chest, revealing the multitude of scars underneath. Her other hand presses against the large, unsightly scar right in the middle of her sternum. The deepest scar that Fumi had physically inflicted upon her.

Fumi looked upon her with guilt in her eyes. Before her was a crisscross of scars new and old, ones that a noble warrior such as Tamao didn’t deserve to bear the pain of. And of course, the horrid scar that decorated Tamao’s sternum.

“You now bear the wound that you once inflicted upon me. I ask of you, if ever you find yourself seeking death, to run your fingers over that scar as you so often do mine, and remember me. I wish for you to live, Fumi. Your mistakes cannot be erased, but it’s not too late to build a future of healing. Please, Fumi, live for me.”

Truly, she held the soul of a noble, fearless leader, Fumi thought. Taking her words to heart, she steeled herself and took up a resolve.

“Then I swear to you, my master.” she kneels and bows her head deeply. “Your goals, your dreams, they shall now be mine. Death shall not claim me as long as you stand, for my life is now yours. Use me as you please, my master.”

**Author's Note:**

> hmu @reshichu on twt to see me cry over tamafumi a lot and also play advanced dressup simulator with obstacles


End file.
